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A Lost Art? A speech on creativity from my experiences

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Are schools squashing creativity?

I wrote this speech in high school, but I still like it, so I thought I would share! It remained true for me through college and graduate school, which surprised me! This isn't meant to say that all teachers are like this, but I do agree with Sir Ken Robinson who seems to argue (in the TED talk I've seen so far) that the system of education was established based on principles that were important during the industrial revolution. We are supposed to be preparing children for jobs in the future, and we don't even know what that will look like, he says. So appreciating the whole of human capacity and the varied talents people have becomes even more important. He adds that creativity is crucial to this. I definitely can't wait to read his books! Check the sidebar for one of them.

My speech starts and ends with the example of a young child being told to draw a flower, and his didn't fit what the teacher thought it should be. I had a similar experience when I was in kindergarten when we were given a filler task to color some pre-printed dinosaur coloring sheets. I started to color my dinosaur purple, inside the lines since I got in trouble a lot for that. My teacher said dinosaurs weren't purple, pick a different color. I imagine she knew because she was there. Either way, it was the start to a school life until college of doing the minimum so as not to bring attention to myself or be harrassed.

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The Mind's Eye

Dream, Believe, Create! Click here to buy this as a poster.A fourth grade class was asked to draw a flower and be creative. The students began drawing a flower as they saw it in their mind's eye. Each creative by definition. The class showed their teacher, Mrs. C, and she frowned. She scolded the class for their drawings and then began drawing one on the board. The new assignment was for the class, essentially, to copy hers: a pink, cliché flower with four round petals around a yellow circle from a single green stem. One boy, little Johnny, did so well copying Mrs. C's that she praised him.

Johnny grown up

Click here to buy this image as a poster!A number of years later, Johnny was in an art class and was asked to draw a flower. A creative piece of art. The teacher asked the students to draw a flower how they saw it in their mind's eye. At the end of the period, the students clamored to turn in their products and leave for their next class. As Johnny set his down, one could see a pink flower with four round petals around a yellow circle from a single green stem. The same flower he drew years before. Everyone, even Johnny, has at least a little creativity in them, or what Linda Leuzzi calls creativity with a little c. Creativity is necessary in our daily lives. It can pull us from our rut and make our day interesting. As a society we need to value our creativity more and let it bloom in schools and throughout our lives at home and at work. There are plenty of Mrs. C's in the world, especially at schools and places of business.

Catching kids early on

Click here to buy this image as a poster!Mrs. C does her best work in schools where she can catch kids early on in the game of life. As Vaim Ginott said, "Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression." Small children show the signs of a creative individual as defined in Judy Gailbraith's and Jim Delisle's book, A Gifted Kid's Survival Guide. Children are, for the most part, resourceful, funny, and unconventional. They show independent thinking and don't mind being different. That's when they haven't met Mrs. C yet and been discouraged to become one of the Johnnys of the world. "In some cultural groups in the United States," Joan Beck says in her book How to Raise a Brighter Child, "certain kinds of stifling early environments produce individuals who are not open to new ideas and whose production of good innovations is very limited." Some teachers spend a lot of time giving students ideas for projects instead of letting students think on their own or among each other.

Schools to blame?

Click here to buy this image as a poster!Beck mentions how creativity, "can also be dulled almost out of existence by some child rearing and educational practices." It's very likely that creativity is punished out of students before they reach high school. Dr. E Paul Torrance, an expert on creativity in children points out that "beginning about age 3, a child's creativity usually begins to increase, " he continues, "It seems to reach a peak between 4 and 4½. Then it drops suddenly about age 5, when the youngster enters kindergarten." Before children begin school, they are naturally highly creative but as they go through their school years, creativity declines. However, children need that creativity later in life and if they are discouraged early, it will make the rest of their school life difficult.

Schools to blame?

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The Bureaucratic Mind

Click here to buy this image as a poster!That last bell of senior year does signify the end of your school life but it doesn't mean you're free of ever seeing Mrs. C again. She now reappears as regional vice presidents, department managers, and supervisors, reigning over your cubicled universe. This time of your life, you may find yourself in that rut of doing the same work at a little desk day to day. Charles Cave who has studied creativity for years suggests, "Routines or set ways of performing tasks have their uses," but if someone becomes so entrenched in a routine it can lead to the development of the anathema of creativity, the 'bureaucratic mind.' In other words, it can turn you into a Mrs. C too. Margaret J. Wheatley says, "The things we fear most in organizations - fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances - are primary sources of creativity." Sure, that would be when your boss assigns you a project at the drop of a hat after you haven't had a chance to be creative in a while with piles of paperwork. Suppressing innovation in the real world limits the opportunity for creative ideas to surface when they really count for problem-solving, projects and performance.

The fix

Click here to buy this image as a poster!So how can we regenerate our creativity? Some inventors attribute their spark from a walk, job, or some other physical activity, such as Edwin Land, who invented the Polaroid camera. That's all well and good but how do we fix the growing problem of uncreative children in schools now? How can we get through to teachers that encouraging students to do their own thing is good? I've personally had a lot of teachers who automatically assume students don't want to read, do work or activities, and they have a grim attitude that makes the class oppressive. Perhaps teachers should plant in students the idea that John Updike presents, "Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better." In other words, encourage students to do their beset and continue improving. This will encourage students to grow up and become creative adults who will have the will to do it right or better.

Passion

Click here to buy this image as a poster!Until then, we need to encourage our creative sides more and let creativity bloom in schools and throughout our lives at home. Leuzzi, in her book, A Creative Life, suggests a way to rediscover that buried creativity. First, you need a passion. Find something that makes you enthusiastic. Second, she says, "Once you've recognized your passion, curiosity becomes the foundation for your creative path." Searching for information about your passion or as Smiley Blanton, M.D., puts it, "A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education." Leuzzi also stresses that you don't give up and that you have integrity in your creative work. Now don't get me wrong. This method might not work for everyone, Mrs. C for example, but I have faith that even Mrs. C can bring out her creativity, with a little c.

Built to be creative

Click here to buy this image as a poster!Also, some people have slipped through the system that advocates complete conformity and machine-like thinking skills and still have that creativity. However, there are times when everyone feels uncreative, and these guidelines may help him or her get back on track. Companies want people to be on that track. They pay people called "creativity consultants" millions to, as Steven Pinker says, "turn every manager into an Edison." In the end, everyone sees flowers differently and we have to remember that there will be those Mrs. C's out there who want everyone to see his or her flowers the ways she does. There will be those people who don't appreciate other's individual style of drawing and creative mind but humans were built to be creative; and, as Henry David Thoreau said, "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

"Every manager into an Edison"

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